Gov. John Bel Edwards said Louisiana isn't able to execute people because the state can't get the drugs it needs to perform lethal injections and no other method is allowed under current state law.

The governor also pushed back on assertions made by Attorney General Jeff Landry that Edwards wasn't being aggressive enough in finding ways to carry out executions despite challenges. He said he only heard of Landry's criticism -- which was laid out in a letter released to the media Wednesday (July 18) -- through public news reports.

"In the press release accompanying your letter, you state that you have attempted to work with me several times to try to resume executions in Louisiana," Edwards wrote Thursday. "As you know, this is simply not true."

"You seem more concerned with issuing press releases and sending tweets than actually trying to find a resolution to an issue of profound importance in Louisiana that pre-dates both of our terms in office," Edwards wrote to Landry.

Louisiana has 71 inmates on death row and has not executed anyone since 2010. Louisiana's prison officials have said for several years that it has had trouble acquiring the drugs it would need to carry out lethal injection lawfully -- a problem several other states also face.

Louisiana is also being sued over its lethal injection protocol. At the request of state authorities who work for Edwards, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick agreed this week to a 12-month extension of an order temporarily staying all executions in Louisiana for another year.

Landry has said he won't be involved in defending the state over the lethal injection litigation anymore because Edwards isn't trying hard enough to resolve the problem. Landry, a Republican, and Edwards, a Democrat, don't get along -- and the Attorney General may run against Edwards in the 2019 gubernatorial election.

"The State has not carried out a death sentence since 2010, even though a large and growing number of victims' families suffer in legal limbo waiting for justice to be carried out," Landry wrote in the letter to Edwards Wednesday.

"You are not supporting victims of crime by quitting a case that is attempting to solve the death penalty impasse and then taking to social media to try to score political points," Edwards responded in his letter Thursday. "That is using victims of crime - not supporting them."

Members of Landry and Edwards' staff met at least once last October to discuss ways in which the state might be able to move forward with executions after several years of delays.

They discussed taking advantage of alternative drugs for the executions, such as Fentanyl. They also looked at changing state pharmacy board rules regarding out-of-state pharmacies that could compound the lethal injection drugs. Landry and Edwards' staff have also talked about expanding the options for executions from just lethal injection to death by nitrogen hypoxia, essentially suffocation.

But in his letter to Landry Thursday, Edwards said they would need the Louisiana Legislature's help to pass new laws to get traction on the execution issue. Neither Landry nor Edwards have pushed bills that would help executions move forward since they took office in 2016.

Other states who have moved forward with executions recently, like Texas, have been able to do so because their processes for acquiring drugs are kept secret, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization in Washington D.C.

That makes it more likely that pharmacies will participate in supplying the drugs -- and less likely that the drugs used will be traced back to companies who might object to them assisting executions.

In Louisiana, what drugs are used in executions and how they are acquired is subject to public record. To seal that information, the Legislature would have to pass a new law to allow that information to be kept secret.

Such legislation was introduced in 2014 -- and looked likely to pass -- but was pulled from consideration when former state Rep. Joe Lopinto, the author of that bill, had a fight with then-Gov. Bobby Jindal over a different subject. No similar bill has been introduced since then.

"In order to get any drugs from a wholesaler or manufacturer, the state has certify under penalty of perjury that none of the drugs will be use for executions," Edwards wrote to Landry. "While you do note correctly that some other states have recently been able to obtain some drugs via various methods for execution, you fail to mention that the main reason for that is because those states are not required to disclose how drugs are obtained."

Landry has also indicated that Louisiana should consider alternative execution methods, if the lethal injection process isn't an option. In a tweet, Landry suggested he would be open to execution by gas, hanging and firing squad in addition to lethal injection.

This is simple: I support the death penalty - by lethal injection, gas, hanging, and firing squad. Does @LouisianaGov? #lagov#lalege

The Legislature would have to be involved in expanding the options for executions too. No bill to do so has been filed since 2014, when an initial version of Lopinto's proposal to conceal the lethal injection protocol called for the electric chair to be used as an alternative. Lopinto removed that language at the time because there was significant opposition from lawmakers to his proposal.

Expanding options for carrying out the death penalty has been a hot topic in statehouses over the past few years, as it became harder to acquire the drugs needed for lethal injection, said Amber Widgery, with the National Conference of State Legislatures, in an interview Thursday.

Earlier this year, Alabama passed a new law to allow people to be put to death using nitrogen hypoxia as well as lethal injection. In 2017, Mississippi added nitrogen hypoxia, electrocution and firing squad to its execution options if lethal injection becomes unconstitutional or unavailable.

In 2015, Oklahoma added nitrogen hypoxia as an option if lethal injection isn't available and Utah added the firing squad as a legal method of execution if lethal injection isn't available.

But even if states are adding these alternative execution methods to their state laws, they aren't using them yet.

Utah executed one man, Ronnie Lee Gardner, via firing squad in 2010, under an old law that allowed him to pick that option because he had been sentenced to death in the 1990s. Other than that, lethal injection has been the standard operating procedure in all state executions for decades.

And no state has developed an execution protocol that involves one of the most popular recent alternatives, nitrogen hypoxia, yet. Such a protocol would likely get challenged in court once it's put in place.

Landry supports alternative methods of execution, but his office refused to say Thursday whether he would back a bill in the 2019 state legislative session that would broaden Louisiana's options beyond execution by lethal injection.

"It is important to note that no option is possible if the Governor continues to block executions from happening," said Ruth Wisher, Landry's spokeswoman, when asked if Landry would support legislation expanding death penalty options. "So again, does Governor Edwards support the death penalty?"

Edwards has been reluctant to say whether he supports the death penalty or not. When efforts were underway to abolish the death penalty in 2017, he refused to say whether he would support such legislation.